


In which Sobriel is called a smug bastard and falls hard

by SalixEnder03



Series: Adventures In Otherworldly Mischief [1]
Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Gen, implied future feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 12:26:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29171070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SalixEnder03/pseuds/SalixEnder03
Summary: Read this title and you'll know what's what in this one
Series: Adventures In Otherworldly Mischief [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2141484
Kudos: 1





	In which Sobriel is called a smug bastard and falls hard

Shortly before the Beginning, there was the Fall. Heaven's structure collapsed as a solid half of their numbers descended after the Morningstar, wings burning, into Hell.

Before the Fall, there  _ was _ no command structure. Or rather, there was, but after the second Fall, the Fall of Man, it was obvious that roles needed to be revised. There was rarely any free time to enjoy the beauty of the rest of their Father's creation before angels from every corner of Heaven were sentenced to millenia of miracle-working and desk work.

Dominion Sobriel was only one of millions. Previously, he had been a part of the information filing department- in other words, he did lots of paperwork, and that didn't change. He was one of the few angels who kept something akin to his old job during the transition.

At least, so he surmised from the paper that had landed on his desk earlier that morning.

According to said paper, he was to head to the Archangel Gabriel's office, where he would meet with his team, and later, his unit of Virtues. He was on his way at that moment, wings tucked away in a manner that had become commonplace after the Fall of their many brethren (it was only fair, Heaven supposed, to hide away yet another painful reminder of what could have very easily happened to every one of them had they misstepped), when he was suddenly, without a sound of warning, knocked over by something very big and very solid.

"Ow," Sobriel groaned, rubbing his head where an object had hit him very unceremoniously. He opened one eye cautiously and his vision was suddenly filled with red hair and violet eyes.

"Ohmygosh I am  _ so sorry!" _ The other angel exclaimed. "Let me help you up, here-"

Blindly, he accepted the other angel's hand and let her- at least, he  _ thought _ the voice was feminine- help him up. He opened the other eye and finally saw his attacker clearly.

"Are you okay?" The other angel asked him in concern, currently ignoring the massive pile of books  _ (that's _ what had hit his head earlier, he realized faintly) that she had apparently been carrying when she had run into him.

"I'm fine," Sobriel spoke finally, blinking. He towered over a foot higher than the much smaller angel, who had a back-length mop of curly red hair, a button nose, and rather large violet eyes that shone with concern. "The question is, are  _ you _ okay after unceremoniously attacking me?"

She blinked for a second, then her eyes widened in outrage and her cheeks flushed as she sputtered, "I didn't  _ attack _ you! I just-"

"Bumped into me with a rather large stack of books?" Sobriel finished, smirking rather triumphantly. "Felt about the same to me."

"You're impossible," She huffed and bent down to pick up her books. Sobriel moved to help her and she raised a single finger in his face. "Nope, I can do this myself."

"Surely you could use some help?" Sobriel asked, trying to be somewhat useful. The other angel raised an eyebrow at him and went back to her task, ignoring him.

"Let me at least contribute a little bit," Sobriel protested. The other angel bit her lip hesitantly and craned her neck to look up, up, up into his blue-gray eyes. She shook her head and turned back to her task.

"Well..." Sobriel threw his arms out helplessly. "I have a meeting anyway."

"I figured as much. See ya," She replied without stopping to look at him. He sighed in exasperation and pivoted on his heel to walk over to Gabriel's office.

"Welcome, Dominion!" The Archangel exclaimed cheerfully as Sobriel walked through the already-open door precariously. "You're a little late."

Sobriel looked around the room and noticed that there were six other (he assumed) Dominions and that he was, indeed, the last one. "My humblest apologies sir, I was held back by an unfortunate interaction with-"

"Yes, yes," Gabriel interrupted, waving his hand dismissively, "well now that you're here, we can get started!"

"Er," one of the other Dominions questioned, "started on what?"

"Your new assignments, of course!" The Archangel grinned widely. "The Council of Archangels has decided that it is prudent that Heaven's structure be revisited, in light of the two recent major changes. 

"The seven of you may be wondering why exactly it is that you were assembled in  _ my _ office specifically." One of the other male Dominions raised a single eyebrow but didn't comment. "And that is because each one of you is a member of an elite team of Dominions.  _ My _ Dominions.

"Each Archangel will oversee seven groups of seven Dominions, and each group will be led by one of my seven Head Dominions. I believe that this group's is-," Gabriel paused and shuffled through a stack of papers before his violet eyes- Sobriel felt a rush of deja vu- lit up in recognition. He raised the paper and continued, "-Chastriel. Which one of you is Chastriel?"

One of the other Dominions raised his hand halfway and stepped forward, speaking in a voice like the Morningstar himself. "I'm Chastriel."

"Perfect!" Gabriel grinned, teeth so white they practically produced light. "These are your fellow Dominions."

"Charmed," Chastriel said neutrally, cobalt blue eyes giving away as much emotion as the rest of his sharp features did. (That is to say, none.)

"You seven will have time to introduce yourselves after this while I summon the next group of Dominions." Gabriel put away the paper he was holding and sat back down at his desk. "You are dismissed."

"Thank you for your time, Archangel Gabriel." Sobriel bowed his head in proper protocol, only afterwards noticing the odd looks his colleagues gave him as they didn't do the same. Puzzled, he followed them out of the immaculate office into the equally pristine and white hallway.

"Why didn't you follow protocol?" He asked as soon as the door closed. Chastriel gave him a look like he was the one who'd breached protocol and possibly (although he doubted it, thinking back on the Archangel's mood as they left) offended their new boss.

"He's a  _ prig," _ Chastriel replied in a tone that implied he thought it should've been obvious to Sobriel from the second he met the Archangel. Sobriel looked at the expressions his fellow Dominions were displaying and suddenly got the feeling that he was the only one out of them that had any real respect for their superior.

"Whatever you say." Sobriel forced himself to shrug noncommittally, not wanting to make a bad first impression on his new boss. "I'm Sobriel."

"Chastriel." Chastriel nodded and shook his outstretched hand, and for the first time since Sobriel had first seen him, gave a small, genuine smile. Sobriel realized that with that smile combined with his cobalt eyes and light brown skin, he was a very good-looking figure. "I think we'll get along just fine."

Sobriel smiled back at him, although it was a little forced, and shook back.

Within the next few minutes, he learned that his fellow team members were Tactiel (a very expressive man with welcoming eyes and a passion for humanity), Ophiol (a short figure who spoke and smiled very little, and was very shy), Harrael (a man, shorter than himself, with a friendly and easygoing nature), Maenol (a charismatic woman with shrewd, dark eyes, who was very good at hiding emotion), Waftiel (a blond man with aquamarine blue eyes and a handsome smile, who was apparently very lazy and inclined towards irresponsibility), and Chastriel himself.

"Our esteemed boss also gave us directions," Chastriel informed the group after introductions were made. "We are to oversee a unit of Virtues, who are supposed to work miracles on Earth or something like that. Our unit of, oh, 24, was it? Yes, 24. The 24 Virtues assigned to us were told to meet in our offices shortly after our meeting ended."

"Right." Sobriel nodded. "Should be going then."

"Should be going," Harrael agreed. Everyone else nodded their assent.

"I'll have messages sent out detailing our meeting times for every week," Chastriel announced. "But for now, have a great rest of your day."

Sobriel dipped his head and walked the distance back to his office. He arrived shortly to find that there was already a small crowd of angels waiting outside his office door, and he nodded in acknowledgment of them. He unlocked the door with a wave of his hand and closed the door behind him, giving himself time to sit down in his chair and exhale.

A knock came from the outside. "Your squadron of Virtues has arrived." 

Sobriel inhaled deeply and spoke, "You may enter."

His office quickly crowded with Virtues (24, to be exact), and he discreetly performed a miracle to expand the walls and ceiling outward.

"Greetings, Virtues," Sobriel began. "As I'm sure many of you are aware, Heaven has had to do a bit of restructuring after the recent Falls."

He received several solemn head bows. "You 24 are assigned to me. You will be performing miracles on Earth whenever you or a superior deems it necessary, and my duty is to oversee you and take your reports. I'm sure the exact details were mentioned in your summonings."

"I have a question," A familiar voice called out. Sobriel looked up into the deep violet eyes of the angel who had run into him in the hallway.

"Book Girl," Sobriel greeted, smirking crookedly.

"Smug bastard," The angel shot back, then continued without preamble, ignoring his (and everyone else's) gape of astonishment. "We were told that we would be ranked. What's that all about?"

"Yes. Well." Sobriel glanced down at the single sheet of paper that graced his otherwise clear desk. "I'm assuming this is the list."

A light purple sticky note on it stated that the following document was a list of his Virtues in rank order from one to twenty-four, each rank named by a letter of the Greek alphabet, ending with a smiley face and a cute little drawn butterfly.

_ What the Heaven is Greek? _ Sobriel wondered, scratching his head.

(He would not find out for a very long time.)

_ I expect Book Girl will be somewhere near the top, _ Sobriel mused.  _ No way someone that independent would rank badly. _

Out loud, he read the first name off the list. "Rank one, Alpha: Asteraoth."

Rather than Book Girl, a petite woman with dirty blond hair and ocean blue eyes stepped forward. Sobriel was a little disappointed, although he could see why Gabriel had placed her first; this Virtue gave off an aura of calm that would be very necessary in a leader.

"Rank two, Beta: Xathanael."

This time, he didn't expect Book Girl to step forward- she didn't seem like much of a Xathanael- but he  _ was _ shocked to see how nervous and insecure the scrawny man that Gabriel had ranked second among his peers was.

"Rank three, Gamma: Hadramiel." The enormous man who accepted his rank with complete silence left Sobriel a bit unsettled.

"Rank four, Delta: Vohamanah."

Sobriel knew that Book Girl wasn't Vohamanah, and he was right. He wondered absentmindedly, as Vohamanah stepped forward, why Gabriel hadn't ranked her ahead of Xathanael and Hadramiel.

"Rank five, Epsilon: Ithuriel."

Up walked a calm, authoritative man with pale features and piercing steel gray eyes. Ithuriel dipped his head respectfully and walked away.

"Rank six, Zeta: Hadriel." The sleek, dark- haired man had a gleam in his deep green eyes that Sobriel didn't like, but he figured it was above his pay grade to do anything about it before anything came about.

"Rank seven, Eta: Douma." Again stepped forward a powerful figure who was definitely not Her.

"Rank eight, Theta: Anaphiel." Anaphiel, calm and collected, immediately stood next to Hadriel after being called.

"Rank nine, Iota: Sareash."

Sareash was one of the most unsettling angels he'd ever laid his eyes upon. The man's skin and hair were pure white, and his eyes, filled with amusement and something else he couldn't name, were reddish pink. Sobriel thought that the humans probably had a name for the condition, or would come up with one within a couple hundred years.

(It took  _ thousands _ of years, in fact.)

Sobriel began to lose confidence, which was replaced by confusion and utter hopelessness as Book Girl wasn't called within the next several ranks. In fact, he reached all the way to Rho (a lean ginger, with golden eyes that were speckled with blue, named Chasan) before he called out the next name.

"Rank eighteen, Sigma: Azaeleal."

Finally, Book Girl stepped forward in all of her five foot glory, vibrant red hair bouncing against her back as she strode forward confidently, violet eyes sparkling with tears of disappointment that she was clearly trying to hide, and Sobriel froze.

_ Azaeleal. _

She held his gaze for a second before nodding, and then she walked to the group of those who had been called already, fists clenched.

Sobriel called the last six Virtues as if in a daze, ending in Virtue Dubbiel Omega.

"Thank you for your time," He spoke out of habit, forgetting that  _ he _ was in charge here. "You will receive a paper detailing meeting times within the week. You are dismissed."

Sobriel stared absentmindedly at the retreating Virtues, so he didn't notice one particular Virtue stick around, standing awkwardly at his desk.

"Dominion," she called, trying to get his attention. Sobriel shook himself out of his trance and looked up at the Virtue, not much taller than him even with him sitting down.

"Oh, yes, I'm sorry," Sobriel apologized. "How can I help you?"

"I've got a question," Azaeleal began, frowning a bit. Sobriel discovered he didn't much like it.

"Yes?" He folded his hands together and sat up in his chair, watching her attentively.

"Did you rank me that low because I ran into you with a book, refused your help, and called you a smug bastard?"

"You  _ knocked me over, _ and I seem to remember it being  _ multiple _ books," Sobriel teased, trying to hide his slight bewilderment. "But no. Until I called your name, I had no idea who you were, and I'm not the one in charge of rankings anyway. You'd have to go through Chastriel, who is  _ my _ boss before you got to the root of the problem. Archangel Gabriel is in charge of rankings."

"Oh." Azaeleal's frown smoothed out. "So if I were to go to anyone with a complaint about my ranking-"

At Sobriel's stricken face, she burst out laughing. "I'm  _ joking, _ I'd  _ never _ go complaining to  _ him _ about something so petty." She shrugged nonchalantly. "If our Father wants me to be Sigma, then Sigma I'll be."

"You had me  _ terrified _ for a second," Sobriel complained, although he was grinning slightly. "Can I call you Azaeleal? Or would you prefer 'Virtue'?"

"You can call me whatever, within reason," Azaeleal replied. "Nothing weird or inappropriate. Ick."

"Nothing too weird or inappropriate," Sobriel agreed. "Azaeleal, then."

The name felt shivery when he said it for himself, and he found he liked it very much.

"You forgot to tell us your name, by the way," Azaeleal told him, smirking a bit as she leaned against his desk. Sobriel's breath caught in its throat, and he hoped desperately that she didn't know how much she was tempting him by proximity alone. "I don't even know what to call you."

"Sobriel," Sobriel blurted, forcing a very nervous but genuine smile onto his face. "It's Sobriel."

"Sobriel," Azaeleal tested the name, then smiled. "Sobriel. It suits you."

**Author's Note:**

> This formed in the depths of my brain after I read a Good Omens fic that involved several OC angels messing around and doing office shenanigans and irritating Gabriel discreetly. I fell in love with the concept and created a whole thing out of it. This series will eventually become an occasional crossover to Lucifer, so... I hope you enjoyed this!
> 
> SalixEnder03
> 
> P.S. Literal months after I initially wrote this, I realized that Sareash's character is almost exactly like Bill Cipher- and the funny thing is, I made him MONTHS before i ever watched Gravity Falls. Funny how that works sometimes.


End file.
